eHealth Price Index

The eHealth Health Insurance Price Index is the first and only tool of its kind, tracking on a daily basis the average monthly cost of individual and family health insurance for plans based on applications submitted nationwide through eHealth. All data is for 2014 Affordable Care Act plans without a subsidy applied.

Daily Health Insurance Price Index

What does this show?

Daily snapshot of national average monthly cost of health insurance for individuals and families for the prior 14 days, average age, and most popular metal level. The Average 2013 Monthly Premium (the dotted line in the chart) is the average monthly premium for 2013 pre-Obamacare plans purchased through eHealth and active in February 2013.

Average Health Insurance Premiums by State

eHealth's Quarterly Price Index analyzes the national average individual and family health insurance premiums for applications submitted through eHealth over the indicated period of time. Full methodology and details.

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METHODOLOGY

eHealth is one of the few organizations with national source health insurance data that broadly reflects consumer buying patterns and purchase prices in the self-purchased individual and family health insurance market.

Definitions

The "Premium" is the estimated cost of a health insurance plan that the consumer is quoted when submitting a health insurance application on eHealthInsurance.com.

A "submitted application" is a health insurance application that has been completed by a visitor on ehealthinsurance.com and has been submitted for health insurance carrier review and approval via ehealthinsurance.com.

An "individual plan" is an individual and family major medical policy that has one member.

A "family plan" is an individual and family major medical policy that has two or more members.

The eHealth Price Index utilizes simple average data from individual and family health insurance applications submitted during a period of 14 days via eHealthInsurance.com for its daily snapshot and for its quarterly analysis. The average calculation did not include plans that could be purchased using a subsidy.

The national average premium for individuals is the sum of the premiums quoted on all applications submitted through eHealth during a 14 day period (with the exception of applications that were missing the quote, the metal level or the age of primary applicant) divided by the number of submitted applications (with the same exceptions).

Each day point on the Daily Price Index shows the national average premium based on applications submitted through eHealth during a 14 day period (as described above) for that day, as well as the simple average age of all applicants and the most popular plan chosen by metal level (e.g. Gold, Silver, Bronze) measured as the highest percentage of submitted applications for a specific metal level.

The average national premiums and additional data reported in the Quarterly Price Index are based on individual and family health insurance applications submitted through eHealth for the prior period. Certain applications missing key data fields relevant to the Index may be removed from the measured sample.

In order to provide the Quarterly Price Index view by state, eHealth uses a minimum of 100 submitted applications for each state. If a state did not produce the minimum 100 submitted applications during a particular period, then eHealth will not display the view for that state during that period.

The average family size is a sum of all members on all submitted applications considered in the analysis divided by the number of submitted applications.

The average age takes into consideration the age of the primary applicant only.

The Average 2013 Monthly Premium (dotted line in the chart) represents the average national premium calculated based on a sample of 423,000 individual and family major medical plans purchased through eHealth that were active in February 2013. Some policies for which eHealth did not have sufficient benefit or premium data were excluded from the survey.

More details on the methodology used to calculate the national average premium for the Average 2013 Monthly Premium can be found at the Cost and Benefit Report for 2013.

DISCLAIMERS

The average premiums reported in the eHealth Price Index represent a snapshot of national average health insurance premiums based on eHealth’s customer behavior, and do not necessarily represent the average premium of all individual or family health insurance plans purchased across the country through all sources

Analysis is based solely on health insurance plans offered and applied for through eHealthInsurance.com. Results may not reflect the full scope of all individual and family health insurance products on a national basis or that are available within a given state.

The premium data in this report is derived from information received from applications submitted by consumers enrolling through ehealthinsurance.com. The premiums reported in the eHealth Price Index and indicated on Today’s eHealth Price Index Premium are national averages and do not reflect the cost that any given individual may pay. Each individual or family’s health insurance premium is based on many factors, including but not limited to geography, age, type of plan, individual plan benefits chosen and others.

Dollar figures have been rounded to the nearest full dollar.

Permissions: All information is the property of eHealth, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. To reproduce the eHealth Price Index, contact eHealth regarding permissions and usage rights.